Early Retirement
A few weeks ago in the local paper there was a story about a professional guide dog (we’ll call him “Shadow”) that was retiring. There was even a big ceremony attended by the mayor and other dignitaries (I swear that more than 26 people live in my town…and yes, we have a stoplight…lots of ‘em). It seems that the blind lady that uses him felt that at the age of 9 he had worked long enough and needed to spend the rest of his life having fun with her as a regular ol’ dog. This is a very nice thought, but I have a few questions/problems with this whole thing.
First of all, the article stated that immediately after the ceremony the blind woman flew to Florida to begin several weeks of training with a new guide dog. (“Happy Retirement Shadow!! I’ll see you later; I’m heading south to find a new dog.”) My understanding is that guide dogs are in short supply…but this lady is allowed to voluntarily retire her current dog and then immediately gets a new one? That hardly seems fair.
My biggest concern is the future happiness of Shadow. The blind lady is keeping him as a pet, but I wonder how happy he can possibly be. I admire her decision to retire Shadow so that he can enjoy “being a dog.” But what exactly is he going to do? Is he looking forward to doing a lot of traveling? Is he going to pass the days by lying on the back porch doing crossword puzzles? Perhaps he will take up gardening. Let’s face it…dogs love people. Shadow wants nothing more than to spend time with his owner. How is he going to feel about her new guide dog? I have a feeling that instead of being happy about his reduced workload he is going to feel jealous and sad about being replaced.
On a lighter note, this entire situation could be fun to watch. I can picture it now…two guide dogs fighting over the right to lead the blind woman. One goes left, one goes right. Meanwhile, people that see her will wonder, “Geez…how blind do you have to be to need two guide dogs?
But if she really wanted to have fun the lady should put sunglasses on Shadow so that it looks like the new dog is his seeing-eye dog too. Now that sounds like a fun retirement…a dog with his own guide dog…what a life.
posted by Brian @ 10:13 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
It's funny that you should call the dog "Shadow," that's what the lady who worked him into retirement called him too. The irony. I have to agree with you that it's going to be upsetting for poor Shadow to have to share his owner with another dog after all those years alone. Let's keep in mind though, that Guide Dogs are never really "socialized." Remember that kid with the dog that time who had a sign that said we couldn't pet him or anything? Maybe Shadow's worked hard for a really long time and would like to be pet by other kind folks. Maybe you could go pet him. That might be fun.
On a side note...how come your last two posts have been posted at 10:13pm? I think there's something fishy going on...
I understand your point. However, now that Shadow is retired he will be home alone with no one around to even TRY to pet him. If the blind lady was really nice she would take Shadow along with her and the new "worker" dog. She could hang a sign around Shadow's neck that said "Please pet me...I'm retired." That would be a nice end to the story.
you two couldn't hold this conversation in person?
I am tired of being accused
I think the biggest tragedy is the fact that poor shadow and all the guide dogs of the world are not getting fair pay in thier hard work. I mean, what good is retirement when you got no money. So I think we all get together and get all shadow's backpay to him, for 8 year(+1 year of training). He had no time off for weekends or holidays and lets say he worked 16 hours a day. We would have to pay him at least $7 an hour since he is well trained in his profession. Lets see, that would come out to about $40,000 a year so for eight years of hard work, $320,000 in backpay for poor shadow. Then he could afford his own sign around his neck saying if he really wants people to pet him or not.
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